I've just figured out you can do throw combo's in this. If your close to an enemy and press and hold the attack button then turn the joystick away, you can immediately throw the opponent after landing a melee hit. Incredibly useful.

Gotta mention how outstanding the soundtrack for this is too. Very different for an arcade game, combining big orchestral tracks with slow and quiet tracks to build atmosphere and mood. The same style as the sound in Lightbringer (not surprising considering its the same composer, Nakayama)

Ara Ararauna, Blue and Gold Macaw, 32-34 inches
They are adaptable, and enjoy being in social situations. They readily become adept at performing tricks, and seem to love doing so. Cost:$900-1400

More on doing a throw after landing a melee hit - you can actually throw an enemy forward like this as well if you pres back on the stick and then forward again.

So summing up, you don't need to grab an enemy (which is risky) to throw people in this game. You can do a single melee attack and then immediately hold back on the joystick to pick the enemy up and throw them backwards. If you hold the joystick back then immediately go forward again you throw them forward. This is great for crowd control and safety as the throw animation makes you invincible. Note that the throw wont work unless you land the melee hit at a medium or close range, hitting them with the tip of your weapon wont work.

Of course none of this will work with Lisa who has a projectile attack.

Also I was always under the impression Sinbad was top-tier in the game due to his charge attack and the fact Japanese plays online solely use him, and that all other characters were pretty much useless. Well I finally needed to try a fresh approach recently and started using who I've always wanted to use in the game, the tremendously fat Afshaal. After spending a bit of time figuring out the safest ways to cancel out of the blanka roll, and various tricks in attacking with the roll, I have to say he really is not really that much worse than Sinbad, and even has some advantages considering he is essentially the only character in the game with a dash. Certainly a much more fun to use and technical character than Sinbad. I really should spend more time with Rassid and Lisa too to see their intricacies. Taito certainly made everyone in the game play quite different to each other.

More people need to play this shit, such a uniquely put together game, and easily the best Arabian Nights themed game ever created, which turns me on hardcore cause I love the setting.

Ara Ararauna, Blue and Gold Macaw, 32-34 inches

They are adaptable, and enjoy being in social situations. They readily become adept at performing tricks, and seem to love doing so. Cost:$900-1400

And I was wrong, Lisa can indeed do the throw trick even with her projectiles at close range. Rassid seems to be the worst character with no special move to get single-hit knockdowns on enemies, which fucks up his crowd control capabilities that is important in later stages. His normal combo is incredibly fast though, maybe it could be abused somehow.

Ara Ararauna, Blue and Gold Macaw, 32-34 inches

They are adaptable, and enjoy being in social situations. They readily become adept at performing tricks, and seem to love doing so. Cost:$900-1400

briefly tested out Rassid, sort of the main chara, the game plays much more like a traditional belt fighter with him, his ultra fast normal attacks being his main source of power. With Afshaal, it's more about his rolling (dash) attack and the incredibly useful "hit and throw" tactic discovered by Macaw.

I really like this game, it gives a great sense of adventure in what I find a fascinating setting. The music plays a big part in this.